etired Massachusetts State Trooper Bill Powers was about to embark on an

intensive new training program, designed to help teach detectives the tools of their trade, and decided he needed to make the interview and interrogation portion of the two-week program as realistic as possible.

For that purpose, he needed the detectives, who hail from dozens of departments across Massachusetts, to feel like they were doing a real-world interview with a suspect or a victim who could truly test their skills. But where to find a bank of volunteers to fit that role?

Enter Middlesex Theater and Performing Arts students ­ specifically Random Acts, MCC's improvisation group. Random Acts brings attention to issues prevalent in our community by the use of improvisation. Students provide their audience with scenarios that help to empower individuals.

By the techniques of both long- and short-form improvisation, the group explores scenarios in partnership with the audience. Random Acts performs throughout the year for audiences inside and outside the

Molly Flood, left, a member of Random Acts, MCC's improvisation troupe, portrays a crime victim or

perpetrator during a mock interview, as part of a NEMLEC regional detective training program.

classroom. Participants have also taken part in nursing simulations, mock disasters, mock hearings, classroom role-plays, as well as many college events. Random Acts also performs its own hilarious night of comedy twice a year. The group consists of 10 actors, with auditions held in the fall.

The detective training is sponsored by the Northeastern Massachusetts Law Enforcement Council (NEMLEC) Foundation, of which MCC is a founding member. NEMLEC is a police consortium of 57 cities and towns in Middlesex and Essex counties, comprised of more than 2,500 police officers. The MCC students were offered as a solution to bring a tinge of realism to the NEMLEC training, and it's been a partnership that has been met with rave reviews.

Powers, who had hundreds of investigations under his belt as a state trooper, is now the Director of Professional Studies in Applied Forensic Sciences and Criminal Investigations at the Boston University School of Medicine. He said the MCC students upped the ante for the participating detectives.

"The assistance of (Performing Arts Chairwoman) Karen Oster and her students has exceeded any and all expectations," Powers said. "In most interview and interrogation training environments, you are asked to turn to the person sitting next to you or behind you and ask them a few questions to try to extract information. Utilizing students who act as either victims or suspects in specific case scenarios not only adds stress to the situation, but it causes the officers to focus and prepare far more than they might when they're just talking to a friend who is going to guide them through the exercise. In addition, the entire process is video recorded, conducted live in front of their police peers, and then critiqued for a half hour by the officers. The most telling and insightful comments generally come from the student, who is able to explain how their responses were directly related to the officer's demeanor."

The program, which offered its seventh session this March, has trained 175 police detectives from more than two dozen NEMLEC communities. NEMLEC Foundation member and Chelmsford Police